The USBWA National Freshman of the Year is an annual basketball honor given to college basketball's most outstanding freshman male player and female player by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), an association of college basketball journalists. Since 2011 the men's award has been called the Wayman Tisdale Award while the women's award has been called the Tamika Catchings Award since 2020. The award was first given following the 1988–89 season for men and 1991–92 for women.

There has never been a tie for the men's award, but there have been two for the women, with Tasha Humphrey () and Candice Wiggins () sharing the 2004–05 award, and Paige Bueckers (UConn) and Caitlin Clark (Iowa) sharing honors in 2020–21. Five players have been named a national player of the year by receiving one of the major awards for either men or women in the same season as being named the USBWA Freshman of the Year. Among men's players, Kevin Durant (Texas) was the first in 2007, followed by Anthony Davis (Kentucky) in 2012, Zion Williamson (Duke) in 2019, and Cooper Flagg (also of Duke) in 2025. The first woman to receive both honors was Bueckers in 2021.

On July 26, 2010, the USBWA announced that they would rename the men's National Freshman of the Year award after the late Wayman Tisdale, who in 1983 was named a first-team All-American as a freshman at Oklahoma. The women's award was officially named in honor of Tamika Catchings on October 17, 2019. As a freshman at Tennessee in 1997–98, she averaged 18.2 points for the undefeated national champion Lady Volunteers. Catchings went on to be named a three-time USBWA All-American and the organization's national player of the year in 2000.

Key † Co-National Freshman of the Year    *     Awarded a national player of the year award that same season: Men – Sporting News; Oscar Robertson Trophy; Associated Press; NABC; UPI; Naismith; Wooden; Adolph Rupp Trophy; HelmsWomen – Associated Press; Naismith; Wooden; WBCA

Winners

+ Men Season Player School Position Reference 1988–89 LSU PG 1989–90 Georgia Tech PG 1990–91 Wake Forest PF 1991–92 Michigan C 1992–93 California PG 1993–94 Maryland PF / C 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 Saint Louis SG 1998–99 SF / SG 1999–00 Arizona PG 2000–01 C 2001–02 Texas PG 2002–03 Syracuse SF 2003–04 Duke SF 2004–05 North Carolina PF 2005–06 North Carolina PF / C 2006–07 * Texas SF 2007–08 Kansas State PF 2008–09 Memphis PG 2009–10 Kentucky PG 2010–11 Ohio State PF 2011–12 * Kentucky C 2012–13 Oklahoma State PG 2013–14 Duke SF 2014–15 Duke C 2015–16 LSU PG 2016–17 UCLA PG 2017–18 Oklahoma PG 2018–19 * Duke PF 2019–20 Duke C 2020–21 Oklahoma State PG 2021–22 Auburn PF 2022–23 Alabama SF 2023–24 Kentucky SG / PG 2024–25 * Duke SG / SF 2025–26 * Duke PF + Women Season Player School Position Reference 1988–89 No award 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 G 1992–93 Ohio State SG / SF 1993–94 Purdue F / C 1994–95 SG 1995–96 Tennessee SF 1996–97 PG 1997–98 Tennessee SF 1998–99 C 1999–00 F 2000–01 SG / SF 2001–02 F 2002–03 SF 2003–04 F 2004–05† C PG / SG 2005–06 C 2006–07 UConn C 2007–08 UConn PF 2008–09 Tennessee SF / G 2009–10 Baylor C 2010–11 Baylor PG 2011–12 C / PF 2012–13 Notre Dame PG / SG 2013–14 North Carolina SG 2014–15 Ohio State PG / SG 2015–16 California C / PF 2016–17 Oregon PG 2017–18 Texas A&M PG 2018–19 Kentucky SG 2019–20 South Carolina PF / C 2020–21† * UConn PG Iowa PG 2021–22 DePaul F 2022–23 Florida State G 2023–24 USC SG 2024–25 Vanderbilt SG 2025–26 USC G Freshmen are ineligible for the third major player of the year award in women's basketball, the Wade Trophy. Chris Jackson legally changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf in 1991 upon his conversion to Islam. No award was presented to the men from 1995 to 1997, although the USBWA website does not indicate the reason.

See also Oscar Robertson Trophy – the USBWA's national men's college player of the year award USBWA Women's National Player of the Year USBWA Most Courageous Award – presented to figures associated with college basketball who have "demonstrated extraordinary courage reflecting honor on the sport of amateur basketball"

References

External links